Avon, Stringer and Wee-Bey discuss how best to deal with Omar after the attempted hit on Avon, deciding to let him think they want peace, whilst secretly planning to kill him. As such, Omar and Stringer meet for a parley, with security provided by Prop Joe. Meanwhile, Stringer insists on decreasing Avon's visibility in light of the detail's attempt to follow him after the basketball game. An irritable Phelan signs an affidavit for the new phone being used by the pit crew, and Pearlman tells McNulty that he is not up for automatic re-election, possibly because of the feathers he has ruffled due to his involvement with the Barksdale case. D'Angelo tries to understand why Shardene has left him, and after being clean for three days, Bubbles gets some advice from Waylon, before turning to Greggs for support. Meanwhile, McNulty attempts to flip Wallace, and the detail identifies Barksdale's main stash house. However, when Orlando's attempt to purchase weight gets him a lot more than he bargained for, Burrell sees an opportunity for a dangerous undercover operation.

I'll start with the ending since that was the most powerful. I can't believe the detail didn't take more precautions to protect Kima! Orlando and everyone knew that Avon would be coming for him. The story they gave them was so fishy "I want to sell drugs to make bond" was laughable. Avon and his crew would see right through that, and that's assuming they even keep Orlando alive long enough to say it. There is no excuse that they didn't do a better job of tailing the car during that scene. I honestly don't know if Kima is alive or dead, but I'm giving it a 75% chance she is dead. I should have seen this coming from a mile away when she was getting drunks with her girlfriend/friends and shared her cop story. Her girlfriend hates Kima being a cop and thinks it is dangerous. Of course Kima is killed (or seriously injured) in the same episode they have this conversation. As sad as that scene left me, it was an excellent scene. So tense with her and Orlando waiting in the car and her not knowing where they were so they police couldn't find her.

Orlando buying from an undercover cop was hilarious, but I didn't understand that's what happened at the time. Orlando hands him the money and the cop hands him a package and starts laughing. Were we suppose to realize he was a cop then? I didn't catch on until Orlando was locked up and the undercover cop was there. I like seeing all of these different puzzle pieces fit into place for McNulty. However, I knew Orlando would be dead before they could actually put him to use.

Speaking of that, Wallace coming clean with everything is pretty huge. It doesn't seal up everything, but it is a good start. I wonder if anyone in Avon's crew knows about the grandmother?

Omar continues to impress. He sniffs out right away that Stringer doesn't plan on honoring their deal and is going to kill him the next time they meet. It's smart of Omar to skip town for now. Also smart of Stringer not to mention Barksdale ever, or even that he knows who he is. Stringer and Omar are worthy adversaries.

Poor Bubbles. He really wants to get clean and it seems like he is trying. He's going to be waiting for Kima to hook him up with some money for his $200 mattress and hole in the wall. When she doesn't show up, or when he hears what happened, he is going to start using for sure.

Prez gets to leave the office for once...to be a trash man. They are doing a great job of redeeming his character by making him good at the office work, but that doesn't change the fact he blinded a kid. I wonder when they will come back to bite him.

Only a little bit of D this episode, and it was just him being annoyed with his baby mama. He misses his Chardine. Chardine was trying way to hard to get information. She is going to get herself caught. Also, contacts were a thing in 2002....no one wore glasses like that!

We also saw the stash house. Are we to believe all of the drugs are being kept there?

Did the gunman of Kima/Orlando take the $30k? That made it very clear that they could not lose that money.

You'll find out about the money and Kima, next time in another exciting episode of the Wire.

Prez is becoming a very sympathetic character. He's thrust into a job he doesn't want due to his wife and father-in-law. He begins to see another side of policing by working with Lester. But... he is someone who just can't get out of his own way.

I think that the undercover cop's smirk and laugh combined with Orlando's apprehensive look at the end of the sting scene signals to the viewer that Orlando got played somehow, but yeah it's not completely clear what happened until the later scene.

Some poor decision making was definitely made by the BPD with that buy. McNulty and Daniels tried arguing against it but buy-busts like that are like their bread and butter and someone like Burrell wasn't going to pass on such an opportunity if it had a chance of bringing an expensive, undesirable case like the Barksdale investigation to a close.

And yeah, it does seem like they could've done more to protect Kima. These days the car would've been tracked via GPS (and that tech would've been available during the time frame of the show... the poor, stone age BPD might not have the means, but you'd think the DEA could've helped out on that end since they were willing to front that $30k). Though it might not have helped too much. They still would've had to have kept their cars a fair distance to avoid spooking Savino and it doesn't take long for a couple guys to creep out of an alley and shoot up a car. They did stash a gun underneath Kima's seat which was supposed to be a last line of defense of sorts but apparently that wasn't any help either.

Only a little bit of D this episode, and it was just him being annoyed with his baby mama. He misses his Chardine. Chardine was trying way to hard to get information. She is going to get herself caught. Also, contacts were a thing in 2002....no one wore glasses like that!

Shardene's granny glasses is another anachronism or maybe just a minor plot hole (season 1 is based largely on an investigation Ed Burns did in the 80s and the script didn't update or even lampshade everything completely). I think her lack of contacts is supposed to be a frugality thing, but given her occupation getting contacts (or at least more stylish glasses) would be a smart investment. Maybe up until then Shardene was happier not being able to see her surroundings clearly at work.

I don't think she was too incautious this episode though (depending on whether or not there were other girls in the room out of shot when she listened at the door) but in the scene where she broke up with D' she definitely put herself at risk with that "you don't think I look like something you could roll up in a carpet and throw in a dumpster?" line which is exactly what they did with her friend of course. D'Angelo may been distracted by the emotional aspect of the breakup to ask himself how she could've learned about that so quickly, because it screams "I've been talking to the police."

Speaking of that, Wallace coming clean with everything is pretty huge. It doesn't seal up everything, but it is a good start. I wonder if anyone in Avon's crew knows about the grandmother?

Yeah, Wallace is a pretty huge break. He doesn't know much that the detail couldn't already guess, but as a witness he links the organization's #2 guy and chief enforcer to a murder. With the losses the gang has already sustained it's not looking too good for them. They know they're being targeted now and they've mostly been acting accordingly (Stringer taking steps to "build a wall" around Avon) but delegating to lieutenants is only feasible as long as you actually have competent and trustworthy lieutenants.

And as of now at least it seems kind of doubtful that anybody in the gang would know about Wallace's grandmother (Stringer and company can't know the life's story of every low level hopper in their employ) especially since she's not in the city and Wallace himself hasn't visited her in years.

Omar continues to impress. He sniffs out right away that Stringer doesn't plan on honoring their deal and is going to kill him the next time they meet. It's smart of Omar to skip town for now. Also smart of Stringer not to mention Barksdale ever, or even that he knows who he is. Stringer and Omar are worthy adversaries.

Stringer is definitely disciplined that way and yeah, Omar is no fool. And then there's prop Prop. Joe ("don't believe we've met"), playing the role of Switzerland, or marriage counselor as he puts it, quietly profiting at every turn of the conflict.

We also saw the stash house. Are we to believe all of the drugs are being kept there?

That's what's implied... it's where the project towers go for their re-ups, so if Barksdale's drugs are going anywhere else, keeping an eye on the house should let the detail pick up on it, and/or possibly give them a line on the Barksdale's suppliers and maybe other stuff.

Did the gunman of Kima/Orlando take the $30k? That made it very clear that they could not lose that money.

It's unclear from what we saw in this episode, but yeah, that is something that was deliberately emphasized in the scene so you can expect a follow-up on it.

Artukka wrote:Source of the post Though it might not have helped too much. They still would've had to have kept their cars a fair distance to avoid spooking Savino and it doesn't take long for a couple guys to creep out of an alley and shoot up a car.

Good point. Unless they were parked next to Orlando in the alley there isn't anything they could have done.